Lou Bopp

Lou Bopp's website says he is a "commercial location photographer." The website's "About" section describes him as a "big shot NYC photographer with Midwestern roots with a resume every kid (...) in America would die for."

I'd say that's probably accurate. He's worked for almost every big-name client you can think of off the top of your head. In his series "Blues Musicians," however, Bopp got personal and intimate with photography and music. He traveled the Blues Highway (Route 61 South from Memphis) to track down and document the last living blues musicians in Mississippi who shaped the genre in America.

According to an article about the series on Feature Shoot, Bopp also documented the remaining culture of the blues in Mississippi in addition to shooting portraits of the musicians. He photographed the roadhouses and bars that supported the music, using only natural light and no assistants.

I was interested in this series because music photography is what initially inspired me to learn photography years ago. I really enjoy Bopp's approach because he photographed a decent amount of musicians, and made use of some very interesting locations to add to the story each photo is trying to tell about those musicians. He seamlessly combines locations, various people, textures, and color palettes to effectively convey a certain mood in each image, which I think are all important parts of documentary portraiture.